New Year’s Eve Family Devotion 2017

This family devotion is meant to be conducted on New Year’s Eve, or just before that. A suggested setting would be the family dinner table or living room. It would be helpful to prepare your family for this Devotion by sharing with them the reasons for having such a Family Devotion. If your family has not had the habit of conducting family devotions, this might be a way to start.

This Family Devotion is specially designed to facilitate an informal family gathering for parents with children who otherwise cannot make it for Watch-Night Service. It should take around 30 to 45 minutes. The main thing is to keep to the objective of the Devotion, which is an occasion for the family to reflect and review together the past year, and to usher in the New Year by way of re-dedication to the Lord.

Things to prepare beforehand:

A copy of the Order of Family Devotion (for the leader).

Computer or equivalent to play the songs and video of Pastor Alby’s homily.

Everyone should have a piece of paper with writing material.

Sharing and Praying Together. The sharing may be framed around the following questions: How has the year ended for you (and your family)? Describe in a word, a phrase or a sentence. Do you wish some things could have ended differently? Why? What are your hopes for the new year? Your fears? You may want to ask your family to prepare their answers beforehand, or everyone can just be given a piece of paper there and then to write their response down. You should prepare what you want to share beforehand, and lead by example in being the first to share. Do close the sharing with corporate prayer for one another.

NEW YEAR’S EVE FAMILY DEVOTION

Word of Greeting and Prayer

O Lord, our heavenly Father, You have been a shelter to every generation. You are a faithful, covenant-keeping God. On this New Year’s Eve, we come together knowing that we are your people. We want to testify to your goodness in our lives; we want to feed on your Word; and we want to renew our commitment to walk with You and live for You. Bless us, O Lord, during this time, with your presence, by Your Spirit. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Song: Great is Thy Faithfulness

Hear the Word – Scripture Reading and Homily

Leader:

Our scripture reading for today is taken from Isaiah 40:1-11; 28-31 [Read in unison or responsively]

[Play video]

** Note:For English captions, click “subtitles/closed captions” **

Sharing and Praying Together

Leader:

Since we heard about endings and beginnings, let’s share about each other’s thoughts on the following questions: How has the year ended for you (and your family)? Describe in a word, a phrase or a sentence. Do you wish some things could have ended differently? Why? What are your hopes for the new year? Your fears?

I’ll go first… [followed by sharing from other members of the family]

What can we as a family commit to do differently in 2018?

Response Song: How Firm a Foundation

Covenant Renewal

We are a family that desires to be disciples of Jesus Christ through a hunger for the Word.

We are a family that desires to have a heart to serve one another as we express the fellowship of the Spirit.

We are a family that desires to be burdened for the lost as we join in our Father’s global mission to reconcile sinful humankind and fallen creation to Himself.